"Today we want to honor our seniors as they come to
their graduation from high school. This
morning I find that I speak from my heart as both as a pastor and as a parent,
though I don’t happen to have a senior this year, (though in another sense I
feel like a father to some of you seniors).
In the course of 18 years, we have seen you go from
being helpless, totally dependent babies nestled in your mother’s arms to what we
now must acknowledge to be independent young adults, ready and able to venture
out into this big wide world that God has created for us. What an amazing change we have witnessed!
 |
| Highlands UMC 2000 Graduating Class |
We who are your parents still want to call you
kids. And you are our kids. And in a sense you’ll always be our
kids. And as you all know from time to
time, we still try to treat you as ‘kids,’ as our dependent children to protect
and nurture and keep from harm. Of
course that’s more of a habit, or maybe a wish to go back in time, to reverse
direction in our family’s life and go back to when you needed us, and we could
care for you and protect you against those things in this world that can harm
you.
But deep down in our hearts we know those days are
over. We know it. Oh, you might still need a small loan, or we
might still have to spend a small fortune on your college education or your wedding.
But the bottom line is that we recognize that you
are young adults now. Like a baby bird
that has been growing big and strong, with wings of feathers capable of soaring
on the winds, you need to get out of the nest and fly on your own. For you were born to fly, to soar high and
beautifully. And fly you must if the
circle of life is to be completed.
And we know
that you need that. If we parents have
been doing our job right, this is a time we have been preparing for. But still it frightens us, not because you
lack anything, but because it’s just hard for us to change what we’ve been
doing for so many years now.
So have patience with us if we have a difficult
letting you go. Over the last 18 years
you have become part of us. We have
poured our lives into yours, and while it has been a lot of work, it has given
us the greatest joy and satisfaction.
You may not fully understand this until, God willing, you raise your own
children and experience it yourself.
Your leaving is a bit like cutting off an arm. We’ll adjust in time, but in the meantime it
just plain hurts.
But it’s time for you to fly, to soar on your
beautiful wings that are strong and ready, if yet still a little untested. We want you to go and you need to go. But always know that we still want to be a
part of your lives, though on a different basis than before, which we’ll work
out together, as adults.
So what do we want for you? The best, of course.
But more specifically, we want you to fulfill your
life and your God-given destiny, whatever that is. We want you to go out and take the abilities,
skills, and talents that God has given you and you’ve developed, and both
develop them more and find a place to apply them. We want you to do something useful and productive,
something that will make this community, this society, and this world a better
place than it was before you arrived.
Probably, it isn’t perfectly clear to us or to you what that is, and
that’s okay. That will develop as you go
through your life, and for some of us, it may take quite a while! And if you let him, God will help you find
it.
We of course want you to be happy. But our faith tells us that happiness is not
something that we seek for directly, but rather it is largely a byproduct of
other things. One thing is for sure:
happiness certainly does not depend upon being wealthy or beautiful or
powerful. Those may or may not be worthy
goals in their own right, but don’t count on them making you happy. Many people grasp for happiness by being
self-centered or materialistic or by seeking a life of constant pleasure. But true happiness is not to be found
there.
So how does one find true happiness? Yes, that is the ‘million dollar question’,
isn’t it! But we believe that God has
given us the answer to that question.
But rather than it being the answer to a ‘yes or no’ question or a
‘multiple choice’ question, it’s more like the answer to an ‘essay’ question—there
are as many ways to answer it as there are individuals, yet some answers are
more correct than others. So let me give
you Carl’s brief essay answer to this question of where one finds true
happiness in this life, understanding that everyone here would put this in a
slightly different way.
And my answer is simply this: remember who you are. You are God’s beloved child, you are his
beautiful creation, you are made in God’s own image. Everything else you do or make of yourself
should revolve around this understanding of who you are.
If you will live your life with this understanding
of who you are and live out its meaning, true happiness will come to you as
naturally as the rain falls on the earth.
True happiness is none other than what the Bible refers to as the joy
and peace that comes to you when you live out the reality of being God’s
beloved child.
So, make
room for God in your life. Indeed, more
than make room, surrender your life over into His keeping through trust in Christ. Never forget that you are ultimately a
spiritual being, and that faith in Christ is as natural and as essential a part
of your life as anything else.
Therefore, practice being a faithful person, using the spiritual
disciplines of prayer, worship, scripture study, fellowship in community and
deeds of love and mercy.
I don’t know of a better recipe for real happiness
and blessedness than the Sermon on the Mount, which Jesus taught his disciples
in Matthew’s gospel, chapters 5-7, and which he demonstrated for us in his
life. Blessed are the humble, the
merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers.
Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth, but store up for
yourself treasures in heaven. Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Do not worry about your life or about tomorrow, but seek first God’s
kingdom and his righteousness. Build
your house (and your life) upon a rock and not upon shifting sand, because a
house built upon a rock will not fall when the storms comes.
Christ
put it well in the gospel of John, when he said that we are to love one another
as he loved us. In doing so, we become
friends, friends of our brothers and sisters and friends of Christ, friends forever.
One more thought on happiness. One contemporary writer, Richard Carlson,
author of the “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” series, put it this way: “The truth is, there’s no better time to be
happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with
challenges. It’s best to admit this to
yourself and decide to be happy anyway.
There is no way to
happiness. Happiness is the way” (from Don’t
Sweat the Small Stuff).
This is a determination to live in the present,
making the most of every hour and every day, because we never know when our
life will end. The prominent philosopher
John Lennon once wrote: “Life is what’s
happening while we’re busy making other plans.”
Now is the only time we have! So,
plan for the future, and learn from the past, but live in the present and enjoy or at least appreciate every day as
it comes.
Let me go on
to some other aspects of living life wisely.
Accept yourself—who you are and where you come from. And be grateful for it. One of the truest things I ever saw on a
poster was this: “What you are is God’s gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift back
to God.” This is, I think, the heart and
soul of service. When we serve, we give
back to God what he has first given to us.
Learn the lessons that life has to teach you, which
interestingly enough mostly come from the problems we encounter in life. Life is difficult, about that there is little
doubt. All of us will, at some point in
our lives, turn to the book of Job for solace and comfort. But in the face of tough times, determine
that you will not ever give into despair or become cynical. Hang in there when things seem to fall apart,
and friends desert you, and even God seems to have hidden his face. For in reality, like the sun beyond the
clouds, God is still there and your real friends are still there. Always keep hope alive in your life.
Strive to be a person of integrity. Always keep your promises and commitments, or
don’t make them in the first place. Be
honest in all your dealings, and know that lies, whether large or small, will always
find you out.
But in your honesty, don’t be so blunt to the point
of brutality or cruelty. Practice
speaking the truth with gentleness and compassion, and if that proves too
difficult, at least be civil. We often
find that a hard thing to do, when we are filled with passion in our beliefs
and thoughts. At all times, always look
to build other people up, to share in their joys and their sorrows, to be a
peacemaker.
Practice true humility. You don’t need to seek other’s approval by
bragging about your accomplishments.
They speak for themselves. People
are actually drawn to persons who have a quiet, inner confidence and don’t need
to make themselves look good.
Never hate anyone or allow yourself to become bitter
or cynical. These negative attitudes are
toxic poisons to the soul, both your own and that of others. They will slowly kill you. Forgive one another. Forgive one another. Forgive one another.
Be grateful.
Focus on what is good in your life and the things for which you can be
grateful. And of course the ultimate
recipient of our gratitude should be the One who has made us and provided us
with good things, our loving and almighty heavenly Father. Someone has written that “everything has
God’s fingerprints on it.” And we should try to view the world from that
perspective.
And I should like to add how important it is that we
as a human community try to reconnect with the natural world, God’s
creation. In all our Western affluence,
with all our technology, we have increasingly become disconnected from the
creation, from nature. We have forgotten
that we are not gods, that we are also a part of nature. And what we do to nature, we do to ourselves. So let us begin to treat the earth and all
its creatures with more respect, gentleness and compassion. Remember, the creation doesn’t belong to us,
we belong to the creation.
Now let me become even a bit more specific,
graduates. Except for a house and a car,
avoid debt like the plague. Throw away
those applications for credit cards that you’re already receiving in the
mail. Spend less than you make. Save and invest as much as you can. In your finances and in every other part of
your life, practice self-discipline and self-control. Control your desires, your passions, your
feelings, your habits, and your actions. Make these your servants, and never
allow yourself to become their slave.
And if you ever do become enslaved, seek help.
Set goals for your life, both short and long term,
and then do what is necessary to achieving them. Strive for excellence. But at the same time, don’t forget to enjoy
the simple and daily pleasures of life.
Avoid television and movies as much as possible, and
when you do watch, make sure it’s not mental and emotional “junk food.” Read more good books. Listen to good music, for music is the language
of angels.
Don’t read People
magazine! In other words, don’t envy
or try to imitate celebrities, because most of them know less about living the
“good life” than you do, and certainly less than your parents do. Instead, find yourself a real hero to
emulate, maybe your father or mother or a grandparent or uncle or aunt, or a
teacher or coach, or a saint or prophet.
Set for yourself high ideals.
If you get married, and the chances are that most of
you will, be very careful about the person you select as your life’s
partner. Get serious premarital
counseling. But once you have made your
wedding vows, keep them! Work hard at
your marriage, and be prepared to change, because both you and your partner and
your relationship will change over the years.
And make this the basic operating principle of your marriage: when in
doubt about whose turn it is to take out the trash, go ahead and take it out.!
Finally, although I know that it’s probably hard for
you to think about his now, don’t forget to grow old gracefully. Early in our lives, it’s easy to think we’re
going to live forever. Later on, when
our bodies start to go bad, we begin to face the hard truth of life and our
eventual mortality. That’s when some of
us go kind of crazy and have mid-life crises and so forth.
But actually it’s a pretty good idea to once in a
while consider your death and in so consider the state of your life. When you lie on your deathbed, what will you
think of your life--your relationships, your priorities, your
achievements? What would want your epitaph,
carved on your tombstone, to be?
Most people look back on their lives and wish they
had spent more time with the people and activities they truly loved and less
time worrying about aspects of life that don’t really matter all that much.
There is something to be said for living each day as if it were your last day
on earth. Not to be morally reckless
or to neglect your responsibilities, but simply to help remind yourself of how
wonderfully precious life really is and what your real priorities in this life
should be.
Well, that’s it for today. Graduates, we wish you the very best. We’re proud of you, and we love you and will
always support you. God go with you, and
know that you are loved, and that you are always in our thoughts and prayers,
wherever you are.
Heavenly
Father,
We are
thankful for these young people you have shared with us, as our children and
our friends. We now humbly present them
back to you. Go with them and keep them
safe as they leave our control and our protection. Continue, in your ultimate wisdom and
providential care, to make them into what you would have them to be. And may your love continue to fill their
hearts and lives, as we all together remain your people and your spiritual
family in humble service in this place and throughout the world. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen."
